ICE agents take a man into custody during a May sweep of a predominantly immigrant Nashville neighborhood as a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer looks on. (Photo: John Partipilo)
The state is fighting to keep information confidential about the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s participation in mass immigration sweeps earlier this year, arguing in court Monday that the highly politicized nature of the enforcement activities could make troopers a target of violence or harassment if made public.
The state’s arguments mirror those of federal immigration officials who have contended that agents with Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, or ICE, need to conceal their identities to protect themselves and their families from retaliation as they carry out mass enforcement responsibilities.
The arguments came as the state defended itself in a public records lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court by the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition.
The nonprofit filed suit last month against the Tennessee Highway Patrol, or THP, and the state’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security, alleging the agencies had failed to meaningfully respond to a request for records and video footage it was seeking to shed light on mass immigration sweeps in Nashville earlier this year.
Hundreds of drivers were stopped in a neighborhood with a large population of immigrants as part of the so-called Operation Flood the Zone, a joint operation between the THP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE; 196 immigrants were ultimately arrested, according to data subsequently released by ICE. The activity occurred before the THP had formally entered into an agreement with ICE to conduct immigration enforcement.
The state delayed providing video of the stops and other documents, and heavily redacted the reports it did provide to exclude a host of identifying information that “made it hard to understand what police did and why they did it,” attorneys for the nonprofit argued, citing the example of one redacted line that read, “Queried [license number] on behalf of XX.”
Zachary Barker, senior assistant attorney general, said the state had removed trooper names, badge numbers, car numbers and other identifying information from dispatch reports to “protect troopers who protect us every day.”
Barker, citing state law he said has applied only to undercover officers in the past, also argued that redacting information such as patrol car numbers was appropriate because “a radical political extremist could take that information…listen to the police scanner and learn where and when an officer will be.”
And, he argued, that redacted THP “unit numbers” are used as part of the process to log into the agency’s computer system, posing a threat to operations if exposed.
Michael Holley, an attorney for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, called the scenarios Barker described “just far-fetched.”
“There’s no basis that this has ever happened,” he said. “Frankly it’s absurd this is the state’s position.”
Holley noted that THP officers wear name tags and badge numbers in public. How, he asked, could “the information that’s used in public…become confidential when someone asks for it.”
The identities of law enforcement officers participating in arrests and traffic stops is public information, said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.
Fisher said she knew of no other instance when a state trooper’s name was redacted from traffic stop records in Tennessee.
The practice, Fisher said, could undermine public trust in law enforcement.
“We have to maintain public trust in the police, and the officer’s name is part of that public trust,” she said.
“If there’s a safety reason, we need to know. The public needs to know what kind of threats have been made or what kinds of actions taken,” she said. “Tennesseans don’t want people threatening our officers, but they also don’t want secret police.”
In legal filings state attorneys cited national statistics that said 13.5% of sworn officers were assaulted in the line of duty in 2004, a total of 85,730 assaults that year.
Troopers engaged in immigration enforcement face even greater risks, they said.
“While troopers face danger every day as they protect Tennesseans, connecting a specific trooper’s identity to an operation involving highly politicized immigration enforcement increased the danger to that trooper,” the state’s legal filings said.
A legislative effort is also underway to shield the identities of Tennessee law enforcement participating in immigration enforcement.
A bill filed by Sen. Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican, which would make confidential the name of any federal state or local officer or official participating in immigration enforcement activities in Tennessee, will be considered when the legislature reconvenes in January. The bill’s language also calls for officers’ personal information, including addresses and phone numbers, to remain confidential. Tennessee law already protects officers’ private information from public dissemination.
Chancellor Russell Perkins, who presided over Monday’s public records hearing, said he would rule “as quickly as I can” on the petition by the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition to force the state to promptly turn over all requested records.